Did the devs lie to us? Either actually make BLU OP, or unlock it

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

I don't understand the solo job aspect of it, literally any job can do shit solo, what makes BLU so special? Is it because its locked out of most content and can't sign up for DF? The Masked Carnivale is neat but its mostly a one and done deal except for weekly challenges which, once you know how to clear the fight, takes no time at all. It needs a party to learn most of the spellbook, not just a party, usually one that has several lvl 70's because running with only blue mages is incredibly inefficient and the drop rates are laughably low so you want to speed the process up, making it so BLU needs babying for it to learn spells, this is laughable considering this is the job that is supposed to be overpowered.

For all their insistence that it is OP, it doesn't feel like it in any way, 4 BLU's doing content is more tedious than fun, yeah its cool using all your skills but they are so underpowered its barely worth it, Missile and junk is nice but I find most enemies are immune to the abilities that would make BLU OP in the first place.

I would honestly prefer if they ditched the limited jobs, the idea is nice in concept but if this is the execution, I really can't say I want to see more. They say it would be hard to implement BLU to fit the current paradigm but come on, I'm sure the devs can think of something, that's their job.

[Elleia]

I was skeptical when BLU was announced, but I wanted to give it a fair shake. As it is now, it feels like they tried for a middle ground, which was not the play. Either balance it for normal play and make it a normal job, or make it broken enough to solo most things without too much difficulty.

It wasn’t too bad at first, as the open world spells are pretty quick and easy to get. I thought I could unsync Haukke Manor and get through it fine on my own...but no. Even though I outleveled the dungeon by 10 or so levels, the mobs still hit hard enough to force me to use Mighty Guard and spam 1K needles, which made the whole process incredibly slow, dull, and boring. I know I could use all the self buffs + toad oil and self-destruct to take out everything, but this is still tedious and a waste of time to constantly respawn and run back. There’s no way Cutter’s Cry or Aurum Vale will be any better, so I doubt I’ll try soloing them.

I don’t want to sit in PF to get a group to run dungeons and trials over and over. I just want to do a run here and there, like I do for other jobs to get glamour, but it seems in PF the expectation is to spam something until the spell is learned. I could learn spells on my own time using DF or squadrons, but of course BLU can’t use these systems (the latter of which is mind-boggling). So let me solo these things in a reasonable amount of time, instead. That’s what I thought the job would be based on the trailers with the BLU fighting Shiva. Instead we got a weak job that needs to use PF to farm skills for hours on end because the drop rates are so low.

[Kallera]

Lie? That depends on a lot of factors.

Mislead? Definitely.

Let's consult a dictionary.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lie

Definition of lie (Entry 3 of 6)

intransitive verb
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive She was lying when she said she didn't break the vase. He lied about his past experience.
2 : to create a false or misleading impression Statistics sometimes lie. The mirror never lies.

transitive verb
: to bring about by telling lies He lied his way out of trouble.

[Iscah]

I find it very hard to believe that they deliberately lied. That they deliberately created a unique job design that was mediocre and tried to sell it as amazing when they could actually make it amazing for the same amount of work and a whole lot more player satisfaction.

Maybe they're out of step with their playerbase and really do think it's a good design. Maybe it's a "cultural difference" and all their playtesters agreed it was a good design.

Whatever it is, something has gone wrong between how they described it and what we actually got, but I will assume lack of awareness over actual malice.

[Shougun]

Let's consult a dictionary.

Personally I don't believe SE purposefully mislead their audience (did not attempt to lie to us). I do think whatever expectation they had of their audience was off from what people were hoping for though.

I'm still very confused on the statistic Yoshida mentioned in an interview, certainly I could be in a bubble but it really seems to be the opposite of his presented data (in game, reddit, youtube, and the forums). I wouldn't say they lied but unintentionally mislead might be accurate.

I find it very hard to believe that they deliberately lied. . . . Maybe they're out of step with their playerbase and really do think it's a good design. Maybe it's a "cultural difference" and all their playtesters agreed it was a good design. . . but I will assume lack of awareness over actual malice.

I agree with this greatly. I would/will be exceptionally worried about the future of FFXIV if I believed that they did this out any sort of malice or attempt to purposefully mislead... That's a really bad sign.

I find it more likely they weren't in sync, perhaps even internally even. One of my suspicions is this is mostly one person's passion project (with help here and there), so perhaps they've got a very particular design mindset or were given very tight reigns.

[Evogolist]

I find it very hard to believe that they deliberately lied. That they deliberately created a unique job design that was mediocre and tried to sell it as amazing when they could actually make it amazing for the same amount of work and a whole lot more player satisfaction.

Maybe they're out of step with their playerbase and really do think it's a good design. Maybe it's a "cultural difference" and all their playtesters agreed it was a good design.

Whatever it is, something has gone wrong between how they described it and what we actually got, but I will assume lack of awareness over actual malice.

I have a character that I play on Yojimbo server which is mostly a JPN server and I can tell you, almost the whole server was running Blu when it launched last Tuesday. By the weekend though there were only a handful still running Blu. All the ARR zones were back to being dead again. Even where the Masked Carnival NPC is, there's maybe like one or two people there at a time, not to mention I haven't seen a single PF up for Primal Spells. My Japanese isn't fluent, but I would say they aren't too fond of BLU either, so it's definitely not a difference in culture.

I said this in another thread, but I guess I'll say it here too. It's painfully obvious to see that the framework for BLU to be a normal job is there. Job Quests requiring you to go learn certain spells in order to progress, needing a party to acquire said spells, because said spells are locked in dungeons with a horrible RNG learning rate. All they would need to do is force BLU to go out and acquire any particular spell every 5-10 lvls (increase the learning rate of said spells of course) and the only excuse ppl would have for not having their tool kit in DF and Raids would be what we have now, players that just didn't care in the first place.

The thing that I can see that even remotely makes BLU OP or broken is the fact that there's no level lock on the spells and so certain spells such as White Wind and 1k needles can be acquired at level 1. If they (the devs) are just going to give every spell to us at level 1, than why even level blu in the first place? So we can suffer through horrible RNG when trying to get spells from old content nobody does anymore?

[Iscah]

I have a character that I play on Yojimbo server which is mostly a JPN server and I can tell you, almost the whole server was running Blu when it launched last Tuesday. By the weekend though there were only a handful still running Blu. All the ARR zones were back to being dead again. Even where the Masked Carnival NPC is, there's maybe like one or two people there at a time, not to mention I haven't seen a single PF up for Primal Spells. My Japanese isn't fluent, but I would say they aren't too fond of BLU either, so it's definitely not a difference in culture.

I'm also on a Japanese server - Elemental group, which I don't think includes Yojimbo.

It's inevitable that it'll be busiest on first release, and after the rush fades you won't see the same concentration, because people have finished their open-world leveling and skills, at which point there's no reason to remain 'out in the open', and are probably hacking away at primal skills if they're still interested. I'm still seeing PFs posted, not that I check all that frequently, but people are also organising to do it with friends or FC members so you won't see all that's going on.

(Also at least on Unicorn server this week, I had to go to northern Thanalan for some quests with my alt character, and there was a fair-sized hunt group chasing the B-rank mark all over the map trying to get its skill. And people still powerleveling in other areas - could not get my hunt marks on the Isles of Umbra because a blue-and-scholar team were wiping out everything on the island. )

I'm not especially defending it, but "there are less people than there were on launch day" isn't a fair argument against the popularity of anything.

[EaMett]

I'm 100% behind the make us stronger or allow us to at least join DF. Right now BLU is a non-solo class locked out of any party content. 2/2 4/4 strats are dumb, not challenging. It doesn't even qualify as a grind since you just run and wait for someone else to kill stuff for you.

Carnival is entertaining the first time around, challenges might be decent I haven't tried too hard at this point. However it's frustrating that our decent skills are walled behind group content. I don't have a single decent wind attack spell yet which is a handicap in the carnival.

This is going to suffer the same faith as eureka in that once the content is no longer relevant you won't even find parties to join for most of your skills. I don't understand how the designers keep repeating these mistakes? Are they so held up in their personal ties to old school grind mmorpgs that they just MUST impose outdated concepts to a non grind game like ff14 which basically results in content becoming stale from lack of participation once the bulk of players have gone through it?

[Evogolist]

I'm also on a Japanese server - Elemental group, which I don't think includes Yojimbo.

It's inevitable that it'll be busiest on first release, and after the rush fades you won't see the same concentration, because people have finished their open-world leveling and skills, at which point there's no reason to remain 'out in the open', and are probably hacking away at primal skills if they're still interested. I'm still seeing PFs posted, not that I check all that frequently, but people are also organising to do it with friends or FC members so you won't see all that's going on.

(Also at least on Unicorn server this week, I had to go to northern Thanalan for some quests with my alt character, and there was a fair-sized hunt group chasing the B-rank mark all over the map trying to get its skill. And people still powerleveling in other areas - could not get my hunt marks on the Isles of Umbra because a blue-and-scholar team were wiping out everything on the island. )

I'm not especially defending it, but "there are less people than there were on launch day" isn't a fair argument against the popularity of anything.

I did an edit of my last post and posted a bit more, but I do agree with your last statement. However, I've also heard from some others here on the forums that things aren't so cool on the JPN forums, but again...just hearsay. Like I said, my Japanese isn't fluent and I'm still learning, so I'll take back the first part of last post, since I can't speak for them. Just thought I'd offer my observations from my side of Eorzea.

[Deceptus]

Let's consult a dictionary.

Quote Originally Posted by Miriam-Webster;
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lie

Definition of lie (Entry 3 of 6)

intransitive verb
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive She was lying when she said she didn't break the vase. He lied about his past experience.
2 : to create a false or misleading impression Statistics sometimes lie. The mirror never lies.

transitive verb
: to bring about by telling lies He lied his way out of trouble.

Important part bolded. Intent is REALLY hard to determine.